


Quiet Night In

by TooMuchTimeinSpace



Series: Days Gone By [3]
Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Gen, Hanging Out, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Made up first names, also to draw sexy pictures of siblings of sin, and to make fun of people, anyway its 3am, draw me like one of your french girls papa, papa iii as an artist, very brief mention of sex, who uses his talents to draw his and his friend's pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25278943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TooMuchTimeinSpace/pseuds/TooMuchTimeinSpace
Summary: Terzo smiled brightly, "you've got the wine; I've got my sketchbook and so much gossip to share that we could be here half the night."
Series: Days Gone By [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790605
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Quiet Night In

Niccolo Copia flopped on his bed with a relieved sigh after a long day of paperwork and meetings – his biretta falling onto the mattress beside him. His day had only been made longer and more stressful as that horrible time of year had finally arrived where budgets needed to be carefully gone over and planned out for the upcoming year. This time with the added stress of needing to factor in the expenses of the tours and concerts for the Ghost Project. But finally, he could just relax and hopefully put off thinking about it again until morning. 

However, he only got to lay there a few moments before there was a knock on the door of his apartment. Face still pressed into his mattress, he groaned in frustration before pushing himself up. He walked over to the door, stalled for a moment by smoothing out his cassock so it looked more presentable, put back on his biretta, straightened it, and took a deep, steadying breath.

He opened the door and was somewhat relieved to find that it wasn’t a ghoul or Sibling of Sin on the other side needing his help in an official capacity but was instead Emeritus III. The other cardinal dressed down so that he merely wore a hoodie with the Opus Eponymous design emblazoned on the front – which embarrassed the eldest of Nihil’s sons whenever the youngest wore it, but he appreciated the gesture anyway – and some pajama pants. His hood was pulled up, to hide away his lack of paint, just in case he ran into his father or Sister Imperator, who would undoubtedly lecture him for it. 

The older man looked Copia up and down in a manner that usually left Siblings of Sin swooning and Copia flustered and/or annoyed, but this time he was too tired to react. “Oh, mio amico, you are still in your vestments. Did you only now just get back from your office?”

“I have, and how long have you been away from yours?” He responded, eyes slightly narrowing at the thought of the other having escaped from his work early, potentially leaving more for Copia to do once he returned to his office in the morning. This wouldn’t be the first time, unfortunately. Though thankfully such an occurrence was fairly infrequent, as the third Emeritus was more responsible than often given credit for.

“Probably around an hour and a half.” The other answered after a moment of thought.

“I see.”

“But let’s not discuss this any further. It is time to relax.” The third smiled brightly. “You’ve got the wine; I’ve got my sketchbook and so much gossip to share we could be here half the night.”

Copia briefly considered sending the other way, he was exhausted, but it had been a while since the two had managed to find time for a quiet night in. “Yes, alright, Tino.” He finally acquiesced and moved out of the way so that the other could enter, but the elder didn’t move right away.

“Ah ah, I’m still in the hallway so its either Cardinal, Emeritus, or Terzo. You know the rules.” He fake chastised with a grin.

“Just get your ass in here.” Copia sighed as he rolled his eyes. Not caring at all for how he spoke to the older cardinal, and technically his superior as a member of the bloodline. The two had grown up together, so it was highly unlikely the third would ever do anything about any disrespect on Copia’s part. So, with that same smug grin on his face, the third finally followed Copia inside the apartment and shut the door behind him.

Copia went to his bedroom to finally change out of his vestments and wash his paint off. When he emerged, he found Emeritus III, Valentino, comfortably situated on the couch with two glasses of wine on the coffee table.

He walked over to the couch and sat down heavily, sinking into the cushions for a moment as he tried to relax as he had been earlier.

“Here,” Valentino said and Copia peeked one open to see him holding out one of the glasses of wine. He accepted it gratefully and took a sip.

“I see you’ve broken into the good stuff,” Copia observed, slightly accusatory, but there was no real heat behind the statement.

“Of course, I did,” Valentino scoffed, “I only partake in the finest wine. Besides if you didn’t want it opened, you should have hidden it away better, and I can always buy you more.”

Copia merely waved away the last statement, and they fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments. Copia sipping his wine intermittently as he watched Valentino flip through the pages of his sketchbook to a new one.

“Do you have any new drawings?” He finally asked.

“Yes, I’ve got a new one of Bela,” Valentino answered, holding up a page with a sketch of the black and white feline as she was stretched out over a bench in the gardens, basking in the sun. Copia hummed in appreciation of the drawing as the other lowered his sketchbook. “I’ve also got a new one of a beautiful Sister the other night.” He continued with a smirk as he continued to flip the pages – not holding up said drawing of course as those were contained within a different book, and he wouldn’t show it off without her permission anyway, he was a gentleman. “It led to some very good sexy times as well.”

“Of course.”

Valentino hummed a little to himself as he finally flipped to an empty page and pulled a pencil from the front pocket of his hoodie. “I still don’t understand why you won’t allow me to draw you, Niccolo. You’d be an excellent model, especially with those thighs.” He added with a wink and Copia choked on the sip of the wine he just took. He turned his face away as he coughed and could hear Valentino laughing. He caught his breath after a moment and turned back to glare at his friend.

“You did that on purpose.” He accused.

The older man scoffed, trying to look upset as he placed a hand over his heart, his façade cracking as he spoke. “How could you accuse me of such a thing. As if I’d ever purposely try to get you to choke on your drink.”

“Well, it seems to happen too often to be merely accidental.” He grumbled before clearing his throat and taking another sip of his wine. Staring at the other pointedly as he did so, who just looked down at his sketchbook with a smirk.

Valentino began moving his pencil across the page, intermittently glancing up at the large rat cage that stood against the wall across from them as he did so. It wasn’t uncommon for Valentino to sketch Copia’s rats or make other random doodles as he shared all the gossip he had learned since their last meet up as the two cardinals relaxed in Copia’s room, enjoying wine. Which they had done fairly regularly back in their days as priests and bishops but had stopped as Valentino spent some time in one of the churches in Poland shortly after becoming a cardinal. Though he had returned shortly after the launch of the Ghost Project’s first album, and the two had started meeting up again, when they could find the time. 

“So…. what gossip do you have this time?” Copia asked nonchalantly. Trying not to seem overly interested despite his love of drama and that gossip was a fairly good way for him to gather information on the inner workings of the church and its members to be used to his advantage.

Valentino easily saw through his act, but gladly shared what he learned and let him feign disinterest without comment. “Well, Sister Emma and Sister Natalia are fighting again.”

“What about this time?”

“Oh, you know, they both fancy the same man in town,” Valentino answered with barely restrained glee, loving any sort of drama that involved romance or passion. “Apparently, they both keep looking for excuses to go into town so that they can run into him but neither has tried asking him out, and he has yet to ask out either one of them. So, they are upset with each other and waiting to see who he chooses.”

“Hmmm, well hopefully this will be resolved soon so they can focus more on their duties in the abbey instead of constantly going into town.”

“Yes, but you know they’ll just have a new argument within a week.” Valentino pointed out and Copia sighed. No one quite knew or understood why those two sisters in particular were always at each other’s throats, and no amount of trying to keep them apart fixed it.

“Of course. As long as their arguments don’t affect anyone else it is fine.”

“Besides causing some minor annoyance and plenty of bemusement to those who work with them, there is no real harm to their arguments, and it is a good source of drama, no?”

“It is.” Copia agreed as he watched his friend finish the sketch of one of his rats on the wheel in their cage.

“Oh, and I’ve heard rumors that Sister Imperator is looking for a ghoul to travel with the band to do interviews.”

Copia sat up slightly straighter at that, he had heard no such whisperings regarding the project. “Interviews? Has the band really gotten popular enough to do interviews already?”

“Not really, but Sister is thinking ahead, and she doesn’t want any of the frontmen to do interviews. So, she wants a ghoul to do it. I’m thinking of trying to get Special the role. He really wants to travel with the band, and I’ve tried showing him guitar and the drums, but he’s just not …… very good at it.” Valentino admitted, “so I think that would be his best bet.”

“I agree,” Copia said, and by the small smile that tugged at the corner of his friend’s lips, it seemed that he appreciated the support in his idea.

“I will share my plan with Giovanni, and I’m sure between the two of us, we can convince Sister.”

“I could say something too, and I’m sure Emilio would as well if you also approached him.”

“Yes, I’m sure he would.” Valentino agreed. “And speaking of the band,” in a tone with barely concealed annoyance, “my father brought up getting another try at the Ghost Project, again.” He said as he continued to look at his sketchbook. Momentarily abandoning the sketch of a rat he was in the middle of to instead start a new sketch in the corner of the page, this time of a person.

“Again?”

“Yes, the old man’s persistence is impressive though, to think that he could ever take back the project before I or Giovanni got our turn.” He said with forced nonchalance. There had been some infighting in the Emeritus family over the role of frontman for the band since Sister Imperator had the idea of bringing it back. Yet tensions between the brothers over the matter had been short-lived so any arguing that still took place was between the Grand Papa and his sons– which was not unusual for the family, unfortunately. However, Valentino generally didn’t share the details of these arguments, being particularly guarded over the matter in a manner that Copia wasn’t used to from him. So, most of Copia’s information on the situation came from Sister Imperator, or what he could pick up from being Nihil’s right-hand man. 

“He is much too old for it anyway.” Valentino continued. “besides, how could he be on oxygen and sing, let alone play that saxophone of his?”

Copia huffed in annoyance, “He certainly manages, and at least you don’t have the office next to his. It is immensely distracting when he decides to practice, and I am trying to do paperwork.” He smiled suddenly, not wanting to miss an opportunity to poke fun at the other. “Not quite as annoying as your kazoo though.”

“You motherfucker! How dare you insult my kazoo, it is fantastic.”

“It is not at all satanic though.” He said, an old joke argument between them.

Valentino spared his friend an unimpressed glance as he continued to sketch before grinning in a way that Copia had long learned to be wary of. “Well, what do you feel about accordions?”

“About what?” Copia faltered, not entirely tracking the sudden switch in conversation.

“Accordions. I’m thinking of getting one. Or maybe bagpipes.” Copia stared at the other for a long moment, unable to tell if he was joking or not. As he knew that Valentino loved to collect random instruments.

“Oh Lucifer,” He finally breathed out, “warn me if you ever get those, I don’t want to be in the abbey to hear it and witness your inevitable murder by the rest of the clergy.”

“They wouldn’t murder me. They love me too much.”

“Fine, they would just destroy it then, and you would deserve it.”

“I suppose,” Valentino admitted begrudgingly, but Copia was sure this wouldn’t deter the other from buying whatever instrument he pleased and possibly performing it at the worst of times.

Copia snorted and let the subject drop, glancing back at the other’s drawings. By now the small sketch in the corner had become a doodle of a stern-looking Sister Imperator and sad looking Nihil with his hands folded in front of him, looking like he was asking for something. Copia chuckled at it and Valentino grinned before returning to his previously unfinished rat sketch.

“What else have you got?”

“Well…” And Valentino was right, he did have so much gossip to share that they were talking long into the night. Copia wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep exactly but woke up to see the lights were off, a blanket had been thrown over him, and Valentino had let himself out.

He stood up and went over to his bed but was startled when something crinkled as he buried his face in his pillow. Confused he sat up and turned on his lamp and noticed the piece of paper that he’d ended up laying on. It was a sketch of him asleep on the couch, head thrown back, mouth open, and… was that supposed to be drool on his chin? The words “you snore” were also scrawled across the page in Valentino’s looping handwriting.

“Stronzo,” Copia muttered with annoyance, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he put the sketch down on his bedside table and settled down to finally get to bed properly.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not super proud of this one, but I wanted to write something a little different from my last couple fics, and this was sort of just an excuse to write a bunch of headcanons and jokes I have, that hopefully others will enjoy as well. Thank you for reading!


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